Rocket Explodes

58 Injured

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF. — An Air Force Titan 34D rocket believed carrying a secret spy satellite blew up shortly after liftoff Friday, damaging the launch area, sending an orange, mushroom-shaped toxic cloud into the air and injuring at least 58 people.

Defense experts said the satellite`s loss would have a serious impact on the United States` ability to monitor Soviet military activity.

Several hours after the blast, officials at the Vandenberg base said 44 armed forces members and 11 civilians were treated at the facility for skin and eye irritation.

Base spokeswoman Patty McCoy said another three people -- all members of the military -- were hospitalized for possible eye burns.

There were no immediate reports of civilians having to be treated outside Vandenberg, 40 miles from President Reagan`s hilltop ranch in Santa Barbara County.

The Air Force said several government vehicles and two government trailers were destroyed by the late morning blast but said damage was confined to the 100,000-acre base.

The rocket that exploded cost about $65 million, said Capt. Rick Sanford. Another defense expert, who asked not to be identified, estimated the cost of the satellite atop the rocket at $100 million.

A Vandenberg spokesman, Lt. Col. Harold Rothgeb, said 173 people were initially trapped in the launch control facility, a reinforced concrete bunker above ground less than a mile from the launch pad, but later were safely taken to another part of the base. There was no evacuation from the base, the Air Force said.

Law enforcement officials and reporters in Lompoc, 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, cited reports of scattered evacuations from some communities and area beaches.

Sheriff`s officials temporarily closed two highways leading to the base. Beaches in the area were closed and evacuated by military and local authorities, along with residents of the mostly rural area of LaSalle and Jalama canyons, officials said.

The Air Force said the rocket that exploded at 10:45 a.m. was a Titan 34D space booster -- a system that Aviation Week and Space Technology, an authoritative aerospace magazine, has said is used to launch large KH-11 reconnaissance satellites.